Top all-time · #2951
Insights
Company blog · decoded.avast.iosecurity
Insights is the company blog at decoded.avast.io, writing about security. Since 2019, 26 different Hacker News readers have linked it 33 times, most often “The fresh smell of ransomed coffee”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-29, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (6) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN commenters link Avast's Gen Blogs for threat research posts on malware: the Retadup worm, Crackonosh miners in cracked software, a ransomed coffee machine case, and the GuptiMiner hijack of antivirus updates.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 6 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Explore all our Gen™ blog insights. Discover the latest cybersecurity reports and research, and learn from the experts with our leadership perspectives.
Most-linked posts?
- The fresh smell of ransomed coffee4 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2020-09-26
- Crackonosh: A New Malware Distributed in Cracked Software2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-06-25
- Putting an end to Retadup: A malicious worm that infected hundreds of thousands2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-08-29
- The secret life of GPS trackers2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-09-05
- The Return of Candiru: Zero-Days in the Middle East2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-07-21
What Hacker News says?
I dug around a little bit and couldn't find a source supporting either of our claims. I did find verified examples of crypto miners in cracked software[0]. I think the threat landscape for cracks has probably changed with the rise of crypto mining. 0. https://decoded.avast.io/danielbenes/crackonosh-a-new-malwar...
Comment linking /danielbenes/crackonosh-a-new-malware-distributed-in-cracked-software/
on “Local simulation feature to be removed from all Autodesk Fusion 360 versions”Submitted The fresh smell of ransomed coffee as a story · 143 points
HN discussionOriginal post: https://decoded.avast.io/martinhron/the-fresh-smell-of-ranso...
Comment linking /martinhron/the-fresh-smell-of-ransomed-coffee/
on “The fresh smell of ransomed coffee”Submitted Linux Threat Hunting: ‘Syslogk’ a kernel rootkit found in the wild as a story · 140 points
HN discussionhttps://decoded.avast.io/martinhron/the-fresh-smell-of-ranso... Original link from the article, perhaps a better source?
Comment linking /martinhron/the-fresh-smell-of-ransomed-coffee/
on “The fresh smell of ransomed coffee”Submitted Lazarus and the FudModule rootkit: Beyond BYOVD with an admin-to-kernel zero-day as a story · 76 points
HN discussionSource with technical details: https://decoded.avast.io/janvojtesek/putting-an-end-to-retad... Saved you a click
Comment linking /janvojtesek/putting-an-end-to-retadup-a-malicious-worm-that-infected-hundreds-of-thousands/
on “Putting an end to Retadup: A malicious worm that infected hundreds of thousands”Submitted Putting an end to Retadup: A malicious worm that infected hundreds of thousands as a story · 68 points
HN discussionTechnical report, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40133680 https://decoded.avast.io/janrubin/guptiminer-hijacking-antiv...
Comment linking /janrubin/guptiminer-hijacking-antivirus-updates-for-distributing-backdoors-and-casual-mining/
on “Hackers infect users of antivirus service that delivered updates over HTTP”Submitted Attackers spread backdoor via eScan antivirus software update process as a story · 57 points
HN discussionUS Commission on International Religious Freedom > While we have no information on the impact of this attack or the actions taken by the attackers, based on our analysis of the files in question, we believe it’s reasonable to conclude that the attackers were able to intercept and possibly exfiltrate all local network traffic in this organization. This could include information exchanged with other US government agen…
Comment linking /threatintel/avast-finds-backdoor-on-us-government-commission-network/
on “Backdoor gives hackers complete control over federal agency network”Submitted Recovery of function prototypes in Visual Basic 6 executables as a story · 28 points
HN discussionSubmitted Backdoored Browser Extensions Hid Malicious Traffic in Analytics Requests as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fresh Smell of ransomed coffee as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Researchers for Avast have developed a decryptor for the Akira ransomware as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Major certification authority in Mongolia was backdoored with Cobalt Strike as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted FakeMBAM: Backdoor delivered through software updates as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Apt Group Targeting Governmental Agencies in East Asia as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted HiddenAds up to no good again and spreading via Android gaming apps as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted Opening a new front against DNS-based threats as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Raspberry Robin's Roshtyak: A Little Lesson in Trickery (2022) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Fresh Smell of ransomed coffee [2020] as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Dota 2 Under Attack: How a V8 Bug Was Exploited in the Game as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Return of Candiru: Zero-Days in the Middle East as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Return of Candiru: Zero-Days in the Middle East as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Racoon-Stealer leverages Telegram app as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Analysis of Attack Against National Games of China Systems as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Exploit Kits vs. Google Chrome as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Magnitude Exploit Kit: Still Alive and Kicking as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted Crackonosh: A New Malware Distributed in Cracked Software as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
